How would Americans react if France”s Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced negotiations should be held between Mexico and The United States over the sovereignty of Texas? This would be similar to Hillary Clinton’s statement in Buenos Aires alongside Argentina’s president Cristina Kirchner in March 2010.

We believe that this is a bilateral issue that needs to be worked out directly between Mexico and the United States. That’s what we are encouraging both sides to do” said Acting Under Secretary for Press Affairs at the State Department Mike Hammer during an exchange with reporters on Twitter.

Likewise “we are encouraging Mexico and the US to work this out peacefully, to work it out through negotiations”.

We want very much to encourage both countries to sit down. Now, we cannot make either one do so, but we think it is the right way to proceed. So we will be saying this publicly, as I have been, and we will continue to encourage exactly the kind of discussion across the table that needs to take place.

Insert Britain and Argentina in the previous statement. That is the only thing I changed. In his talks with President Obama in March, David Cameron reportedly got assurances from the White House that Washington would stop pressing for negotiations. Now, after his ghastly gaffe over Nazi death camps in Poland, the President’s State Department is back talking about “negotiations.”

The Falkland Islands are British Islands. Over 95 percent of the inhabitants of the Falklands are British and want to remain so. A clear-cut case of self-determination. The islands have never been Argentine, though Argentina invaded in 1982, and 250 British servicemen gave their lives to liberate the Falklands. Argentina has no claim to the islands. Any idea that the British should sit down and negotiate is preposterous. And we are not negotiating over Texas either.